Israel: Former Ramat Gan Mayor Zvi Bar sentenced to 5.5 years in jail for fraud

The Tel Aviv District Court on Thursday sentenced former Ramat Gan Mayor Zvi Bar to five and a half years in jail, over his February conviction of accepting some 2 million shekels ($516,000) in bribes, fraud, breach of trust, tax evasion and obstruction of justice.

The prosecution has asked that he get at least nine years in prison and be fined 5 million shekels, while the defense asked for community service.

Bar’s lawyer, Navot Tel-Zur, quoted the presiding Judge Zvi Gurfinkel, who had noted that the projects for which Bar took the bribes benefited the city. Tel-Zur also asked the judge to consider Bar’s contribution to the public and that Bar, 80, was not in the best of health.